Logan metro ranked No. 1 small city for technology, business

The Logan metropolitan area has — for the second straight year — been ranked No. 1 in the Milken Institute’s best-performing small cities list.
A nonprofit, nonpartisan economic think tank, the institute notes that the 2012 results in general were driven by “better performance in short-term technology output and wage increases.”

“Due to the stable state budget, Utah State University, Logan’s primary employer, saw its finances improve and continued to expand its research capacity,” reads a portion of the report. “Moreover, the state-funded Utah Science Technology and Research (USTAR) initiative prompted high-tech producers to hire more aggressively.”

In addition to praising higher education in Logan, the institute lauded Logan’s tech sector, which ranked among the top five in short-term output growth, concentration and diversity in terms of the number of high-tech industries. A total of 179 small metro areas from around the country were ranked in the report.